Happy holiday season to all our friends and readers! If you're looking to fill up your seasonal social calendar with amazing art, music, education, and creativity, the Lady Brain Collective has you covered for fun things to do in San Diego in the coming weeks:

Sunday, December 8 - Lady Brain Presents: Home is Where the Art is Holiday Party at The Holding Company in Ocean Beach
Lady Brain Presents will host its first annual holiday party and winter clothing drive titled “Home is Where the Art is,” with performances by Chloe Lou and The Liddells (retro rock/soul), Julia Sage and The Bad Hombres (South Americana), Miki Vale, (hip-hop) and special guests including emcee Tori Roze. In addition to musical performances, the event will feature a raffle, a collaborative art activity for all attendees, and a winter clothing drive to benefit North County Lifeline’s LifeSpring Program, which offers transitional housing for former foster youth and youth experiencing homelessness. Guests are encouraged to bring (preferably new) beanies, gloves, scarves, socks, blankets. Free, 4-8pm, 21+. More info

Tuesday, December 10 - Acceptance: A soulsong.life Transformative Songwriting Workshop with Astra Kelly at The Lotus Room in Hillcrest
Experience growth, healing, and connection through music by tapping into the creative source. As a group, we will explore the theme of “acceptance" in depth and write a song together that reflects our shared perceptions and experiences. No musical skills necessary! 6-9pm, $60 (Special holiday rate to make it easier to give yourself this gift!) Advance registration required. More info/Register

Friday, December 20 - Tori Roze and The Hot Mess SPECIAL Xmas Show at Bar Pink in North Park
This funky jazzy neo-soul brings you a SPECIAL Xmas version of themselves, including soulful holiday mashups and funky non-denominational tunes to put a smile on your face through the New Year. There will also be a limited edition EP available for purchase by Tori Roze and Johnny Alexander called “Classy Xmas” to stuff those stockings at home! Free, 7-10pm, 21+. More info

Sunday, December 22 - Carissa's Birthday Show ft. Golden Howl at Sycamore Den in Normal Heights
This Lady Brain-laden event will be headlined by Golden Howl (featuring collective members Marlo Smith, Rachel Riba, and Jules Stewart). Birthday girl Carissa Schroeder will open the evening with a solo set of original music on the beautiful (albeit slightly out of tune) piano at Sycamore Den.  Situated nicely between Carissa's birthday (12/20) and the end of year holidays, CS invites you to celebrate with an evening of goddess-y, all-the-feels music, perfect cocktails, delivery ramen, and skeeball.  It's a win-win-win-win. Free, 8-10pm. More info

We had such a wonderful day at yesterday's community gathering! Special thanks to the Lipson family for hosting us at their beautiful home, to all our featured performers, guest artist Amanda Pulis, and to Susan Lipson for facilitating a wonderful creative writing exercise for all attendees. We work hard to build safe spaces for our members and the community to create, connect, express, and be vulnerable with each other. Mission accomplished! 

The theme of this month's gathering was A Way With Words - each performer was asked to share not only their work, but also the inspiration and stories that inspired each piece. We heard about several topics ranging from mental health to grief to aging and more. The common denominator was that each artist combined creativity and resilience to process, heal, and help others. What a beautiful way to cope and connect!

Community gatherings are special because we get to showcase our members' work to the community and because we ask guests to tap into their own creativity. It was wonderful to see so many attendees not only participate in our writing exercise, but also jump up on the mic to share their newly written pieces.

Don't miss out on the next community gathering! We hope you'll join us for next month's holiday party and clothing drive on 12/8 at The Holding Company in Ocean Beach. Want to know more about our showcases? Be sure to sign up for email updates, plus you can also always find showcase info on our homepage. Lastly, if you believe in our cause, please consider becoming a Lady Brain Lover or sponsor so we can continue bringing these awesome events to San Diego!

Thanks to all who attended our August meet-up! Shout out to Jessica Lerner for hosting us and setting up a lovely mimosa station! This month's special guest was Kelsea Rae Little, Media Director at GoFundMe and host of True Stories of Good People podcast. Kelsea fielded our questions about crowdfunding and shared her story of how she got involved with GoFundMe, as well as severals stories of some of the everyday heroes who have used the platform to do good work in the world. There was not a dry eye in the room! 

Thanks to San Diego Reader for featuring our upcoming August community gathering which takes place tomorrow eve at Art on Third in Chula Vista! Read the feature here and RSVP here!

Lady Brain members are out and about in full force this summer - make sure to catch them at one of these upcoming shows/events! 

Friday, August 2 - Jessica Lerner with Full Band at Kensington Club
Jessica Lerner and her band will share the bill with Jehlad and The Rogue Pilots. $5 Cover. More info.

Friday, August 2nd - Julia Sage and The Bad Hombres at The Black Cat Bar
Sonic Attack at Black Cat Bar:  Don’t miss this lineup featuring Tormenta Rey, Lana Rebel and Michael Mayfield, Julia Sage and the Bad Hombres, Gary Hankins, and from Robert's Western World in Nashville TN, special guest DJ Brendan Malone! $5 cover. More info.

Wednesday, August 14 - Tori Roze & The Hot Mess at The Casbah
Tori Roze & The Hot Mess plays the Casbah with The Routine and fellow Lady Brain band The Anodynes. Show starts @ 9pm w/The Anodynes on first, followed by Tori Roze & The Hot Mess second. Come thirsty and ready to get soulful! $8/21+. More info. 

Wednesday, August 14 - Bonfire Jam Circle at The Heritage Ranch in Encinitas
Hosted by Cathryn Beeks of Listen Local Radio. Bring a chair, your beverage of choice and an appetizer to share. Songwriters rotate clockwise and everyone plays on everyone's songs. 7pm to 11pm small donation appreciated. More info.

Friday, August 16 — Lady Brain Presents Showcase at Art on 3rd 
The next installment of the Lady Brain Presents series will be a showcase in a Chula Vista artist-owned gallery.  The event will feature short musical sets from Chris Avetta (with Jules Stewart), Marie Haddad, Dixie Maxwell (with Paige Miller), Carissa Schroeder, and The Spiritual Motels (Amy Day, Omar Musisko), as well as video from Mary Bee, and visual art from Chris Avetta, Julia Sage, and other Lady Brain artists.  All ages, $10 suggested donation. The event will run from 7pm - 10:30pm. More info.

We know, we know, we say it every month, but July's meet-up was SO GOOD! Maybe it was because we were riding the wave of a successful inaugural Lady Brain Fest. Maybe it was the full house, the artsy space, or the nachos. It was definitely the inspiring and collaborative presentations from our host Astra Kelly, Carissa Schroeder, and Sandi King - all Lady Brain members, talented creatives, and compassionate entrepreneurs.

Carissa kicked things off with a chill mindful vocal meditation/warm up. It was exactly what we needed on a Monday night to center and connect with ourselves and each other.

Next, Sandi talked about her new venture, Backseat Booking. No matter the tour route or style of music, Sandi is a wealth of information when it comes to touring. She can help indie artists book entire tours, or give them the tools they need to successfully plan their own routes.

Thanks to Rob at The Unstarving Musician Podcast for inviting Lindsay White on his show to talk about Lady Brain Collective and the upcoming Lady Brain Fest. Listen to the episode below, and don't forget to purchase your tickets for Lady Brain Fest! 

See below for sections of the interview that pertain to Lady Brain Collective and Lady Brain Fest specifically!

8:50: Lady Brain Collective / Lady Brain Fest
12:23: Cathryn Beeks / Listen Local Radio
14:25: Lady Brain Collective Membership
20:50: Sponsorship / Investment Opportunities
27:20: Selecting the Lady Brain Fest Lineup

This edition of Boss Ladies is brought to you by member Jules Stewart, who reviews “Ahuevonao," the latest single from Julia Sage and The Bad Hombres.

This year has already been wildly successful for Julia Sage and The Bad Hombres. They were nominated for a San Diego Music Award in the category of Best New Artist, secured a residency at the consistently hip Bar Pink, and have garnered radio airtime with their song “Ni de Aquí Ni de Allá.” The momentum continues to build for the San Diego-based band with their recent release of a new single called “Ahuevonao” from their upcoming album Desnuda.

The opening guitar from Julia Sage and bouzouki riffs from Drew Douglas are catchy and percussive and beckon like the outstretched hand of a willing dance partner. The blend of unique instrumentation and more conventional rhythms provides an immediate dose of the band’s characteristic SouthAmericana style. Shortly, the rhythm section, anchored by Chad Pittman on bass, drops into a solid, feel-good groove that ushers in the main refrain of the song:

No seai ahuevonao loco
deja de rascarte el coco
porque no sabís lo que querís

If you speak Spanish and find yourself scratching your own head at a few words, it’s because the song is written in Chilean Castellano, a slang dialect. A direct translation of the refrain for those of us who need to work on our Castellano reveals a playful jab at indecisive would-be lovers:

Don’t be a dolt, you crazy guy
stop scratching your head
because you don’t know what you want

Between refrains, the song briefly settles into mellower moments to allow the listener to hear of nights spent together with drinks and dancing, talking until the early hours, and longing for a kiss. The oblivious partner can’t be trusted to take action, though, and the longing continues.

Throughout the song, the performance is vibrant and dynamic, in part due to the fact the song was recorded live with Christopher Hoffee at Chaos Recorders. In a time when live recording has become less common, conquering the logistical challenges pays off in a big way for Julia Sage and the Bad Hombres, a band known for their energetic, intensely entertaining live performances. The lively movement of the keys (from Matthew Strachota) and full rhythmic landscape painted by hand percussion (Natasha Cruz) and drum set (Tom Peart) keep the danceability high from start to finish.

Julia Sage and The Bad Hombres hope to be sharing their upcoming full album with you by the end of 2019. Prepare for impressive variety; this band certainly can’t be limited to a single genre and the band’s members boast mastery of a staggering and eclectic variety of instruments (including a saw, should you need more convincing). If “Ahuevonao” is any indication of what’s to come, there’s much more success in store for this band.

Listen: SoundCloud

Thanks to our friends at SoundDiego for featuring Lady Brain Fest in today's blog! Read the article here and don't forget to purchase your pre-sale tix!